GOD HAS GIVEN US THE TRUTH
And
It is Not a Matter of Interpretation
A Look at What the Bible Says
By Gary Ray Branscome
“No truth of scripture comes from any man-made
explanation” (2Pet.
The truth that God has given us, the
truth that He wants us to believe and teach, is not hidden or mysterious, but
is plainly stated in the words of Scripture. As it is written, “We have not written anything to you, other
than what you read” (2Corinthians
I once quoted that passage to a cult
member only to have him say, “If that was true everyone could just stay home
and read the Bible”. However, he was wrong! He was wrong because the human mind
is blinded by sin. And, because of that blindness, apart from the work of the
Holy Spirit people fail to grasp what is plainly said, while reading their own
ideas into the text, and explaining away whatever does fit their own worldview.
For example: once when speaking to a
woman who believed that God used evolution, I read the words, “In six days the LORD made heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything that is in them, and rested on the seventh day: for
that reason the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and
made it holy.” However, she just brushed off what the Bible said by saying,
“How long were the days?” (Exodus 20:11). She knew that the Bible was talking
about days of the week, but she was unwilling to accept it. And, that is why
there is so much division in the church. As it is written, “The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it?” and “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who holdback the truth in unrighteousness”
(Jeremiah 17:9, Romans
God
wants people to focus on what the Bible plainly says, not what men think about
it; and in order to illustrate this truth I am going to quote six doctrines that are PLAI
The Doctrine of Universal Condemnation
Romans
3:9-20 “All men, both Jews and Gentiles, are all under sin; As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is no one who understands, there is
no one who seeks after God. They are all
gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is no one who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an
open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is
under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are
swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of
peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we
know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law: that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore no flesh will ever be justified in God’s
sight by the deeds of the law: because the knowledge of sin comes by the
law.”
The Doctrine of Justification by Faith
Romans
3:21-31 “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God
which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe:
for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus: Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in
Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law?
of works? No: but by the law of faith. Therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is
he only the God of the Jews? is he not also the God of
the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, who will justify
the circumcised by faith, and uncircumcised through faith. Do we then cancel the law through faith?
Absolutely not: On the contrary, we establish the law.”
The Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness
Romans
4:1-5:21 “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the
flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he
would have a reason to boast; but now he has none before God. For what
does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Now when a man works his wage is not
determined by grace, but by debt. However when a man does not work, but trusts
in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even
as David also describes the blessedness of the man, to whom God imputes
righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin. Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the
uncircumcised? for we say that faith was credited to
Abraham for righteousness. How then was it credited? when
he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not when circumcised, but when uncircumcised.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the
faith that he already had while uncircumcised: that he might be the father of
all who believe, yet are not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed
to them: And also the father of the circumcised to those who are not only
circumcised, but also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham,
that he already had before he was circumcised. For the promise, that he should
be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law,
but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are
heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect: Because the law
works wrath: for there is no transgression, where there is no law. That is why
it is of faith, that it might be by grace; in order that the promise might be
sure to all of Abraham’s offspring; not only those who are of the law, but also
those who are of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is
written, I have made you a father of many nations,) he is our father in the
sight of God in whom he believed, God who gives life to the dead, and calls
things that are not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope,
that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was
spoken, So shall your seed be. And not being weak in
faith, he did not consider his own body now dead, since he was about a hundred
years old, or the deadness of Sara’s womb: He did not waver at the promise of
God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; Being fully
persuaded that, what God had promised, he was also able to perform. And
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom we also
have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of
the glory of God.”
The Doctrine of the Vicarious Atonement
Romans
5:6-11 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man: although it is possible
that some would even dare to die for a good man. But God commends his love
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then,
being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, when we
were enemies, much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom we have now received the atonement.” As it is written:
Isaiah
52:13-53:12 “Behold, my servant will be successful, he will rise, be lifted up
on high, and exalted. Many were amazed at him; his appearance was more
disfigured than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So he shall
sprinkle many nations; kings will stand in silence before him: having never
been told what they now see; and never understood what they now hear. Who has
believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the
LORD revealed? For he will grow up before him like a tender plant, and like a
sprout from a root in dry ground: he has no form or splendor; and when we look
at him, there is no glamour that we should desire him. He is despised and
rejected by men; a man of sorrows, who knew suffering: and we hid as it were
our faces from him; he was despised, and we did not value him. Surely he has
taken on himself our pains, and carried our sorrows: yet we regarded him as
condemned, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
punishment that brought us peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are
healed. Like sheep we have all have gone astray; each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed,
and he was mistreated, yet he did not open his mouth: he was led like a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open
his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who at that time
understood? for he was cut off from the land of the
living: and struck down for his people’s sins. And he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had not committed any crime,
nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him;
he has caused him to suffer: and when you make him an offering for sin, he will
see his seed, he will prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will succeed
by his hand. He will see it out of his anguish, and will be satisfied: by his
knowledge my righteous servant will justify many; for he will bear their
iniquities. Therefore I will give him many people as his share, and he will
divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his life in death:
and lets himself be numbered with the transgressors; while he takes on himself
the sins of many, and makes intercession for the those who rebel.”
The Doctrine of the Fall
and Redemption
Romans
5:12-21 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world by one man, and death by sin;
so death passed upon all men, because all have sinned: (For before the law was
given sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not
sinned in the same way that Adam sinned, who is a type of him that was to come.
But the free gift is not like the fall. For if through the sin of one many
died, the grace of God, and the gift through the grace of one man, Jesus
Christ, has much more abounded to many. Likewise the gift of God is not like
the result of that one sin: for the sentence from one sin brought condemnation,
but the free gift is of many offences to justification. For if death reigned
through one man’s sin; how much more shall those who receive the abundance of
grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through one man, Jesus
Christ.) Therefore as through the sin of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so through the righteousness of one the free gift abounds to
all men bringing justification and life. For as by one man’s disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many will be made righteous.
Moreover the law came, that transgression might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound: That as sin has reigned unto death,
even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord.”
The Doctrine of Walking in Newness of
Life
Romans
6:1-23 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound? Absolutely not. How can we, who are dead to sin,
continue living in it? Don’t you know, that all who
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are
buried with him through baptism into death: that just as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in
newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of
his death, we will also continue together in the likeness of his resurrection:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, so that we would no longer serve sin. For he who is dead
has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him: Knowing that since Christ was raised from the dead he
cannot die again; death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died to sin once for
all: but in that he lives, he lives to God. In the same way regard yourselves
as dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore do
not allow sin to reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts.
And do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness: but
yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and yield
your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will not have
dominion over you: because you are not under the law, but under grace. What
then? shall we sin, because we are not under
the law, but under grace? Absolutely not. Don’t you know, that when you yield yourselves to someone to obey him
as servants, you are the servants of the one you obey; whether of sin to death,
or of obedience to righteousness? But thanks be to God, you who were the slaves
of sin, have obeyed from the heart the form of
doctrine that was delivered to you. And having been freed from sin, you became
the servants of righteousness. I am being frank with you because of the
weakness of the flesh: for as you have yielded your members as slaves to
uncleanness and to iniquity leading to more iniquity; even so now yield your
members as servants to righteousness to sanctification. For when you were the
slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. Yet what benefit did you get
out of those things that you are now ashamed of? for
those things result in death. But now having been freed from sin, and become
servants of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the result is
everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 7:1-6
“Do you not know, brethren, (for I am speaking to those who know the law,) that
the law only has dominion over a man as long as he is alive? For the woman who
has a husband is bound to her husband by the law as long as he is alive; but if
her husband dies, she is released from the law in regard to her husband. So
then, if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she will be an
adulteress: but if her husband is dead, she is free from that law; so that she
is not an adulteress, even though she is married to another man. Likewise, my
brethren, you also died to the law through the body of Christ; that you should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, that were aroused by the law, were active in our
members to bring forth fruit to death. But now we have been released from the
law, having died to that which once bound us; that we should serve in newness
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Conclusion
There you have it. Because “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” Christ died
for our sins. “And the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanses us of all sin,” freeing us from the law “So that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty,” without being condemned because we fall
short (Romans
However, As plainly as those doctrines
are stated in Scripture; even if every church made them part of their official
statement of faith, Satan would quickly have churches fighting about the words,
disagreeing over what conclusions to draw from the words, misconstruing what is
plainly said, and explaining away anything they disagree with. That is simply a
fact about man’s sinful nature and the blindness of the fleshly mind. And,
Satan uses that disagreement to undermine the credibility Scripture.